What should you do after your video is finished and ready to be released? Here’s my advice based on my own experiences.
#1: Write a transcript explaining everything in your video to make it more accessible. At the very least, cover the new stuff that nobody’s seen before. Everyone specializes in different games and not everyone in the fighting game community plays the game you chose to make a video about. There’s no reason to exclude them.
#2: You can’t expect everyone to find your video on their own, so don’t be shy about helping spread the word. Figure out the local etiquette of whatever forum you think might be interested, and follow their rules. Some forums have a designated subforum or designated thread for posting combo video news. Make some noise to generate some feedback.
#3: Be careful not to cross the line with shameless self-promotion. The internet tends to be overly paranoid and unforgiving of anyone who seems to be trying too hard. Just present your video in simple terms and if it doesn’t catch on, then it wasn’t meant to be. Go try someplace else instead of forcing the issue and burning bridges.
#4: Never allow yourself to obsess over view counts. We can discuss all sorts of tips and tricks to help your videos gain more exposure, but the truth is there’s no guaranteed method. No matter how many people buy SSF4/MvC3/TxSF, we’re still a very small community at heart. Random daily factors have a major impact because things aren’t standardized enough to where everything averages out. Essentially it’s a matter of luck, so it’s best not to worry about it too much. Concentrate on making quality videos that you truly want to be making.
#5: Always be cordial with viewers, even when they’re being difficult. No one likes losing arguments, particularly not internet folk. They don’t know how to lose an argument and walk away. Keep in mind that you gain very little from winning an internet argument. You’re much better off being polite to people if you want them to be on your side or even just to leave you alone. Otherwise they’ll stick around and hold a grudge. Either don’t answer rude questions or answer in a way that makes them say, “Oh that’s pretty cool, I didn’t know that.”
Of course there’s a lot more to this whole topic, but these points cover the general essentials. I’d be happy to answer any further specific questions you guys might have.
Btw regarding transcripts, there’s the issue of where to put them. It’s funny, the first response that came to mind was “archive them into the download or post them on your website” because that’s what we used to do in the olden days. Of course nowadays most combo makers don’t bother with the hassle of building personal websites, since everything is released through u2b anyway.
But i still think writing transcripts is important because that’s what makes us a cohesive information-sharing community. Even if you post the entire thing as a giant comment on ComboVid after your video gets announced here, that’s still (way!) better than nothing. Hell, even checking by to answer individual questions goes a long way.
I think that writing Transcripts for a combo video is a Must.
Combo Makers have to understand that not all the viewers of your videos are precisely experts in the game, even more if it is a very flashy Tool Assisted Combo Video showing combos or Glitches under bizarre situations and setups, one should guide them through comprehensive words to realise whats going on in the vid.
This point is even more important if you’re using Glitches imo.
I always take my time on transcripting all the combos i do on my videos, it’s not so fun at all thought, but for example what Magnetro did with his last realeses are the perfect way on how the things must be done, it takes a lot of time and hard work, but the final result is very proffesional.
Transcriptions are certainly a must if you are releasing personal CMV’s, of course it would be ideal if anyone can do it but sometimes when you are doing a collective CMV it is hard to requests these transcriptions to your combo maker (i can tell you about this when I’m producing a big collaboration video), I don’t want also to be way too exigent in demanding the transcriptions from them… unless it is a questionable combo/bug with something that looks weird but that can be done via bug(s) or glitches or conditional set up.
The biggest issue now is that now, at least in the combovid.com, the individual communities (like SF, Tekken, KOF, GG, etc.) are now trying to be in a same spot, before when we release our KOF at CX the transcriptions were not a big deal since most people already had a previous knowledge about public known bugs, but now that we are going to a more general audience, many people just are completely quizzical and have no idea WTF it’s going on… to the point that some ignorant idiots claim our videos are done by hacks or with cheats.
So yeah, at least now from the videos I try to produce I should explain what’s going on in the screen so the audience can have a better understanding and clearing those myths that we use hacks or shit like that.
Magnetro’s explanation videos are great, my favourite part was where he showed what was happening several screens up, where a projectile was coming down from a mile away, in Variable Atmosphere 2. With all that stuff happening off screen, it’s easy to miss, so that video is almost as important as the CMV.
Yeah, collective CMV’s are another different topic i think, it must be somewhat chaotic requesting the transcripts to all the combo makers involved in the video.
Well, it’s up to everyone to make that decision for themselves. Transcripts aren’t mandatory, but from my experience they’re beneficial.
Personally i get annoyed whenever i see a new glitch in a combovid and the maker hides how it was performed. Truthfully, it makes me dislike the video a little bit.
So i think one of the reasons my videos have been successful is that i never hide anything and i always write transcripts as soon as i can. I mean i never enjoy writing them and they always cost me a LOT of time before i’m satisfied with them, but i’ve always felt they were valuable enough to warrant the time and effort.